The affordable prenatal class you need to try if you’re pregnant

Everyone knows babies are expensive. Imagine an endless line of doctors, scans, vitamins and clothes all streaming straight into your bank account. Bye bye savings. And we haven’t even gotten to the birth yet.

That’s why midwife and mum-of-two Edwina Sharrock is so passionate about bringing affordable prenatal care to the masses.“The last thing I want is for people not to do a course because of the cost,” she told bodyandsoul.com.au.

That’s why an 12 month package of her online birthing classes will only set you back $297. That includes antenatal classes, a pregnancy yoga course and advice from experts on everything from breastfeeding to swaddling. To put that into perspective, there are organisations out there charging $999 just for a single weekend of antenatal classes, so that’s some serious savings no matter which way you look at it.

As well as making the classes financially accessible, Edwina realised she needed to make them easy to get to as well. “We’ve got so much of the country that can’t actually access quality childbirth education,” the mother-of-two said.

That’s why in November of last year, after 5 years of teaching face-to-face, Birth Beat went digital. They now offer a complete prenatal program online, with easy-to-use tutorials that can be completed from anywhere.

Although the online program was initially launched to support rural mums, Edwina has been surprised by how many people living in major cities have also signed up.

“It just comes down to the fact that busy women are time-poor these days,” the mum-of-two said. “So online is that solution.”

“You could do the whole course in a weekend really comfortably or break it up over a few evenings with your partner.”

And speaking of partner’s she’s also found a bit of a cult following amongst dads, who might feel embarrassed to ask personal questions in front of strangers. And given the fact that when you think about it, traditional birthing classes are essentially just “sitting around with ten other strangers on bean bags having to ask pretty personal or embarrassing questions,” the dads might have a point.

Really Edwina doesn’t mind how you get the information, the important thing for her is that people don’t go into birth unprepared.

“We don’t pretend to say what their first experience of birth is going to be but you can give them quality evidence-based education and you know that regardless of what their birth looks like - its still going to be a better experience,” she said.

For more information on Birth Beat, check out their website or follow them on Facebook and Instagram. Edwina is also part of HCF's My Family First which means all her courses are now able to be claimed on private health insurance. Go forth and be educated!